The UK telecommunications company will invest $1.5 billion in AI technologies to serve customers, based on Azure OpenAI and Copilot, and replace physical data centers with cheaper and scalable Azure cloud services.

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Microsoft wants to leverage Vodafone's coverage in the IoT and financial services sectors.

On Microsoft's part, the corporation has become an equity investor in the IoT platform managed by Vodafone – which is expected to spin off as an independent business next April – as well as supporting the expansion of the mobile financial platform in Africa.

Vodafone sees supporting businesses in digitalization as an opportunity to boost profits in the already saturated telecommunications industry. CEO Margherita Della Valle estimates the market could be worth up to 140 billion euros.

She said the agreement signed with Microsoft President and CEO Satya Nadella would "accelerate the digital transformation of enterprise customers, especially small and medium-sized companies."

Vodafone's Chief Financial Officer, Luka Mucic, said that Microsoft's leading role in AI, bolstered by the OpenAI partnership, will transform Vodafone's customer services.

According to the plan, Vodafone will use the TOBi chatbot, which runs on AI provided by Microsoft and is capable of responding to queries more intelligently and consistently.

The company says this technology will help mobile network customer service employees improve productivity and the quality of conversations, rather than completely replacing employees with AI.

Meanwhile, Microsoft wants to leverage Vodafone's coverage in the IoT and financial services sectors.

Vodafone's M-PESA mobile money platform, operating in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and other African countries, shares Microsoft's goals in the region, such as building digital literacy.

(According to Reuters)

Microsoft officially overtakes Apple. At the close of trading on January 12th in the US, Microsoft became the world's most valuable public company, surpassing Apple.